RALEIGH, NC – Rod Brind’Amour made the slightest of rolled eyes.
The Carolina Hurricanes coach had been asked this question over and over again, about whether his team can win on the road, what he has to do to win on the road. He had no more answers than he had against the Boston Bruins in the First Round of the Eastern Conference or earlier in the Second Round of the Eastern Conference against the New York Rangers.
He doesn’t have them now, when his team faces the opportunity to close out the Rangers in Game 6 at Madison Square Garden on Saturday (8pm ET: ESPN, TVAS, SN), leading the 3- best of 7 series. 2.
Through the 12 games of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Hurricanes have managed to win seven games and have a chance to advance to the Eastern Conference finals, without winning a single game away from the PNC Arena.
[Complete Hurricanes vs. Rangers series coverage]
“That’s not a problem,” Brind’Amour said Friday. “That’s all I hear. And it’s like, we didn’t play badly on the road. Our game went well. There were a couple of things that went from squirrel, penalty and then 5 to 3. All in all Suddenly those games are thrown in. If that had happened at home, it would have been the same.
“Every game takes its own life. There’s the way we want to play, there’s the way they’re trying to play. We’re playing with good teams. That’s how it goes.”
But, answer it or not, Game 6 is a chance for the Hurricanes to prove themselves, their dignity, and the rest of the NHL to be true Stanley Cup contenders.
So can they win on the road?
“Of course we can,” said striker Andrei Svechnikov.
The Hurricanes had a chance to get their first round series in Game 6 at TD Garden. Instead, the Bruins overwhelmed the Hurricanes in the third period to avoid elimination and push Carolina into a Decisive 7 game at the PNC Arena.
That the hurricanes won.
“To play against New York again, we have to win on the road,” said striker Seth Jarvis. “The most important thing is that we have to find a way to grind one.”
There were signs of life in areas that had previously been dormant for the Hurricanes in their 3-1 win in the game on Thursday 5th. They scored in the power play after going 0 of 9 in the men’s lead in the first four games of the second round. They scored a goal in the third period of Svechnikov, their first point in the series. They dominated the third period and gave little space to work throughout the game to the Rangers, who made 17 shots on goal.
“The way we played was definitely something we want to replicate tomorrow,” Jarvis said. “It just gives us a good foundation, a good framework for tomorrow.”
Video: NYR @ CAR, Gm5: Teravainen puts Jarvis’ feed home
It has sometimes seemed like the Hurricanes are two different teams, one suffocating and dominating at home where they are able to make better use of their skills to deal with Jordan Staal’s line against the opponent’s best forwards and slow them down.
And another on the road, where they struggle to reach the same level of play.
It’s a tough way to win and a tough way to proceed in the postseason, even if the Hurricanes had ice at home guaranteed in the Eastern Conference Finals.
So how do they change that? How do they play game 5 to game 6? How to Avoid the Traps of the [recent] past?
“You just do it,” striker Vincent Trocheck said. “There’s no formula for that. It looks like winning a dead horse. Not winning on the road is no different, really. It’s the same game, the same team. It’s just a matter of being prepared when we start the game in MSG. next match “.
Hurricanes are clearly tired of questions, tired of history. They don’t want to give answers because they don’t seem to have any.
The only problem is that the questions – and the worries – will stop winning a game on the road. On Saturday they have another chance.
“We will give our best,” Brind’Amour said. “We will try to win. Like every night. So nothing changes. We don’t want to go back and have another game, but we will do our best to win tomorrow night.”